Reality TV: A Freak-Show from the Comfort of Your Own Living Room

In the wake of Fox’s new reality TV show More to Love we, as sensible viewers, must ask the question: has television finally lost all credibility? A cross between ratings giants (pun intended) The Biggest Loser and The Bachelor, this show will capitalize on all the ingredients that help turn on a normal reality-TV audience. It will still have the Jacuzzis and sensual massages, but this show will toss in the extra twist of totally eradicating any eye candy what-so-ever.

The show is essentially The Bachelor with overweight contestants. Hey big girls need lovin' too! Mike Fleiss is promoting the show as a reality television program for the common viewer, claiming that not all of their viewers are a size 2 and it’s time for a dating show to appeal those "average" audience members.

Let’s be honest here, reality TV is not what it used to be. The original reality programs, shows like The Real World and Survivor, worked as an experiment to see how people would react when put in certain situations, and quite frankly it was pretty interesting. Now we have shows like Tool Academy and Date My Mom that dominate the water-cooler banter.

Granted these shows are successful -- people watch them -- but we shouldn’t kid ourselves. We don’t watch these shows because we hope the 300-pounder finally finds love; we watch to see people struggle during an obstacle course, and witness the cat-fights. We love these freak-shows because they make us feel better about ourselves and our own lives. Reality television makes us think, “Well my life is rough, but at least it’s not as chaotic as these zeros.”

The show is currently casting and no air-date has been set, but I’m not nervous, the show promises to be amazing. Let’s not forget, these are the people that brought us such gems as My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, and of course who could forget The Littlest Groom.

-Justin Miller